2. I went skiing yesterday! It was super super fun but now I hurt a LOT. I had such a good time though that it was definitely worth all the pain.
We left Bad Godesberg around 10, took a couple trains and a bus, and ended up in Neuss at the Skihalle (it was an indoor place) around noon. After crazy amounts of waiting (since there were like 25 of us), we got our skis/snowboards/pants/jackets/shoes. I decided to try skiing (as opposed to snowboarding) because everyone said that would be easier and I'd feel more accomplished at the end of the day. Ski boots are SO HEAVY and once you put them on you can't move your feet or ankles at all, so walking was really hard and awkward. But I guess it makes sense, because it keeps you from doing things like breaking your ankles. Skis are heavy too, but by the time you're wearing them you're on the snow so you don't really have to pick them up and walk.
So the first time I tried going up the beginner slope (after a few runs down the kiddie one, haha), I fell off of the j-bar (pictured) immediately after getting on it, and they had to stop it from running while I crawled to the side and tried to stand up. Happily, things went much better after that, or at least, I learned from all the mistakes that I made. There were a lot of people there when we first started skiing (~1 pm), but by 4 it had cleared out a little bit. I probably went down the beginner slope maybe 10 times? while we were there and after lunch, when Courtney taught me how to actually slow down and stop I even made it down a few times without falling! After 3 times without falling I decided maybe it was time to try the intermediate one (which was just twice as far up the same hill as the beginner one)... that was fun, but may have been a poor choice, as I ended up skiing with my face about halfway down, skidded to a stop in front of a group of people learning how to snowboard, and tried to get up for about 5 minutes before actually succeeding. But I'm glad I tried it! Since so many people are from places where skiing doesn't really exist (Brazil, Saudi Arabia, etc.), I wasn't the only one doing it for the first time, which was nice. Later when we got home we spent probably an hour talking about how much we had fallen and how much dignity we had lost. My legs and abs and shoulders are really really sore today, but I would totally do it again! I should definitely go on Ski Trip during winter break next year.Today has been nice and relaxing so far. I woke up at 1 pm (yayyy Sundays) and have just been doing emails/Facebook/semi-productive but not stressful things all day. I bought my train ticket to Dresden today... bleh spending money, but yay travel soon! It's going to be a pain to have my suitcases with me, but with the train I booked I only have to change once in Mainz and then spend 6 hours on the ICE the rest of the way to Dresden. If everything goes well I will be there around 6 pm.
Since the last day of class is Wednesday, but I'm not going to Dresden until Sunday, I'm thinking about doing some day trips because I won't be back in this area of Germany for a long time, if ever (at least on this trip). Any suggestions? I'm thinking about maybe going to Düsseldorf for a day, or back to Köln because there's so much there to explore. If there's anything in the Bonn area that I should definitely check out, let me know!
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